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Definition of Hercynian in English:

Hercynian

adjective

Geology

1Relating to or denoting a prolonged mountain-forming period (orogeny) in western Europe, eastern North America, and the Andes in the Upper Palaeozoic era, especially the Carboniferous and Permian periods.

‘This makes them very unusual within the western European Hercynian belt and suggests a peculiar orogenic context.’

‘They are characteristic of the granitic uplands or moors of south-western England and of other Hercynian massifs in western and central Europe.’

‘The late granitic plutons of the NW Iberian Peninsula, the last important felsic magmatic event of the Hercynian orogeny, are distributed in bands parallel to the Ibero-Armorican arc.’

‘These late Hercynian faults are generally assumed to be left-lateral strike-slip faults.’

‘We show that these results allow us to constrain the late Carboniferous/early Permian tectonic setting for this part of the Hercynian belt of Europe.’

1.1as noun the HercynianThe Hercynian orogeny.

Origin

Late 16th century: from Latin Hercynia silva; the ancient name of an area of forested mountains in central Germany; later (from the late 19th century) applied in geology to the Harz Mountains formed in the Hercynian period.